It looks a bit abandoned in many gyms: the Smith machine. How useful is this device if muscle growth is your goal?
A BAD NAME RIGHT?
The Smith machine does not have a good reputation among bodybuilders. For example, the training method would not be functional. In addition, she would be inferior to free weight compound exercises. The latter because with the Smith machine you hardly use your stabilizing muscles. Finally, training with the Smith machine could lead to injuries.
However, the Smith machine’s mediocre reputation is not entirely justified, according to coaches Steve Hall and Mike Israetel, among others. “Functional” in bodybuilding means everything you do to achieve your goal, which is muscle growth. Numerous techniques, materials and machines can contribute to this and are therefore functional, including the Smith machine. And you don’t have to choose one or the other: it is precisely the variety of exercises with which you create optimal overload. Finally, training with the Smith machine is not necessarily dangerous. More on that in a moment.
ADVANTAGES
Training with the Smith machine has the following advantages from a bodybuilding point of view:
- It is a variation on free weight training, which produces a different growth stimulus;
- It puts you in a stable position that allows you to fully focus on the target muscles; the stabilizing muscles are more or less switched off. As a result, you realize a better mind-muscle connection;
- You don’t need a spotter.
CONS
We already mentioned that the Smith machine has a pretty bad reputation among bodybuilders. The device is mostly known for its risk of injury. And yes, the Smith machine forces you to move the bar in a straight line. The natural curve and structure of the spine are thereby undermined. Basically, the Smith machine locks you in an uncomfortable plane of motion.
If the barbell’s path is not correct, it can both limit the effectiveness of the exercise and increase the risk of injury. That is why several coaches are of the opinion that you should not use the Smith machine with the bench press, deadlift, upright row, biceps curl and the triceps extension. Exercises that you can safely do on the Smith machine are the hack squat, lunge, seated shoulder press, bent-over row, hip thrust and the behind-the-back shrug. This of course only with correct form and with relatively low weights, in the range of 10-20 repetitions. For regular squats, it is generally recommended to do them with a barbell.
What about beginners? Training with the Smith machine is easier than with free weights. However, according to Mike Israetel, the Smith machine is not suitable for learning the basic exercises. You will first have to master compounds with free weights, so that your body learns to move in free space. Once you’ve mastered those exercises, feel free to add some Smith machine work.
Finally, we already saw that you hardly train your stabilizing muscles with the Smith machine. But that doesn’t matter as long as you also do exercises with free weights.
CONCLUSION
Opinions in bodybuilding land are still very different about the effectiveness and safety of the Smith machine.
We can cautiously say that the Smith machine is one of the many tools that you have at your disposal as a bodybuilder and with which you can create overload in a more effective way.
Use the Smith machine only sparingly, in addition to your regular strength training, with relatively low weights (10-20 repetitions). Do not do bench presses, deadlifts and upright rows in the Smith machine.
Do not start with the Smith machine until you have mastered your compounds with free weights, so as a bodybuilder with some training experience.